No personal relationship with profs

I am a European law school student who is seeking to do a JD or a LLM in the US. Most of the requirements I see I can take care of, except one:The letters of Recommendation.

Where I'm from, the teaching system is very impersonal. Classes are mostly just given through a straight up lecture. Teachers rarely know you by your name.Now obviously, this seems to be a problem when I'm seeking a letter of recommendation from a few of them as they cannot really state why I am so great.

So how should I make work of this? Should I just go to the top names I have at my law school? Should I go to the teachers whose courses I did well in, even though they probably don't remember me anyway? Or should I try to find a completely different source?

Go to professors you received the best grade in. Most students do not develop great relationship with their professors, but if you performed well in their class you can schedule a meeting to discuss why you want to enroll in law school. After a quick meeting they will likely you write a letter of recommendation as professors are interested in seeing you succeed. I would meet with professors and talk to them and remember professors are on your side and generally want to help.

Go to professors you received the best grade in. Most students do not develop great relationship with their professors, but if you performed well in their class you can schedule a meeting to discuss why you want to enroll in law school. After a quick meeting they will likely you write a letter of recommendation as professors are interested in seeing you succeed. I would meet with professors and talk to them and remember professors are on your side and generally want to help.

Good luck

Thank you for the reply. I actually did this and sent some mails out to the profesors who I got good grades with. I set up a meeting with one, another one told me to ust write a sample letter for him, and the last one told me that I could come meet him, but he is not sure how much help he would be considering he does not really know me.

Two questions here:1) This sample letter, am I writing this from my own perspective? Or from his perspective. I am not sure if he wants me to write a letter that will almost be ready to be sent out or a letter where he wants me to state my case on why I would be a good fit for law school.2) Should I follow up on this last professor? I got the highest grade in his class, but the class barely had any contact hours and it was not an interactive class. Maybe I could convince him of writing a good letter for me. Or should I just stich to the two I have and forget about this one since he does not seem all too enthusiastic?

Don't sweat the LOR portion of your applications too much. Yes, they are a necessary part of the application but in reality they will probably play very little role (if any) in the admission process. The decisions will be based almost entirely on LSAT and GPA. Many applicants are in the same situation as you are, and don't really know their professors. As a result, most applicants get very generic LORs which don't offer any real insight as to the applicant's abilities. "So-and-so will be a valuable addition to your law school, blah blah blah." The LORs that you receive will probably be very similar to what the vast majority of applicants submit.

Exactly writing a letter for yourself is quite common and as Maintain States admission officers at least in America give them little weight. They may be used as a tiebreaker, but if your GPA/LSAT are above the median you have a very good shot at getting in as long as your letters of recommendation, personal statement, etc are competent.

I would write the sample letter and send it in. As for the other professor go meet with him and discuss your plans after meeting with you he/she is more likely to write a recommendation.